I don't have the skill to use Photoshop - and I don't have the software either... So I do everything on PowerPoint. For now, it gets me where I want to go and I like the results. Once I will have one book printed, I'll be able to decide if I keep this up or if I invest in a more «professional» tool.

In 2009, we took a family trip to Disney World, in Florida. Since then, I have been trying to put together a vacation album... fast forward to 2012, and I have all of five pages done! Before then, We had a German exchange student live with us for a whole school year, and even though I made her a 12x12 album and kept sending her additional pages for two years on her birthday and at Christmas, I have yet to do the same for myself and my girls. When I think of all those photos filed away and all those memories that also belong to my girls, I sure would like to have more to show for! Let's get real: I will never have enough time to do all that, with all the backlog and my scrapping speed (or lack thereof).

So last week, I decided to try my hand at digital. I have been wanting to try for a long time and I have accumulated lots of free kits from my travels through cyberspace. Only two weekends into it and I have about 20 pages done! Most definitely worth pursuing, I'd say! So I decided to share my progress here. Here are four pages about our encounter with famous Disney characters:

Again this week, I used my new Posy stamps: Wavy Posy Small (D-1028), Pointed Posy Small (D-1044), Square Posy Small (D-1036), Jagged Posy Small (D-1032), Jagged Posy Medium (E-1031), Jagged Posy Large (G-1030) and Jagged Posy X-Lg (H-1029). I also repeated the mask technique on my background (I really love this technique!) and I stamped and cut my four Jagged posies in patterned papers (the largest one is stamped in white, and the others in dark blue, like the background). I attached my posies together using a large green brad to which I added clear Dew Drops (Robin's Nest) using Glossy Accents (Ranger). Finally, I inked my edges and added a wide green ribbon to my background before adhering it to the card, adhered my layered posy on top with foam squares and finished off with four pearls that I alcohol-inked to match my project.

On May 26 and 27, 2012, Art du scrapbooking will have the great pleasure to welcome Suzanne J. Dean, Certified Designer for Copic and designer for several companies. To get to know her and her beautiful work, take a look at her blog: http://scrapbitz.blogspot.com/. She offers, among other thing, instructional Copic videos, and she owns and manages the Color Me Creative Classroom, a virtual school for Copic coloring fans.

Even though I am certified as well, I registered for the classes... A refresher is always a good thing, and I am such a fan! I will also be the assigned translator for the class' French-speaking students during both days - Beginner/Intermediate and Advanced Copic coloring classes from 9:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. (with breaks, of course). To register, go to the «Color Me Creative Classroom - On the Road» website and scroll down to find Montreal/Art du scrapbooking. All registrations and payments are handled directly on that site.

I used my brand new posy stamps: Wavy Posy Small (D-1028), Pointed Posy Small (D-1044), Square Posy Small (D-1036), Jagged Posy Small (D-1032) and Jagged Posy Medium (E-1031). I stamped the small ones using masks to create my background and separately printed, colored and cut out the larger posy to adhere it in 3D to the background. I used Copic R46 and R59 markers. I also added a bit of R59 all around my black and white background using the bevelled edge of my marker.

I used the Tulips (I-211) stamp, with VersaMark clear ink and Perfect Pearl powders un Interference Red, Blue Patina and Heirloom Gold). The shiny effect isn't visible in the picture, but very pretty in person! T set the Perfect Pearls, I misted lightlly with water (spray stright ahead and bring the image through the mist).

Last week, I stumbled by chance on Victoria Case's Facebook page (she's an illustrator and does beautiful work). She was offering a beautiful image with only one condition attached: publish the colored image on her FB page when done. Here is the card I made with it:

I thought all week about what I wanted to do for this challenge - I wasn't even sure I would take part... and then, I got an idea. I stamped my image (Priscilla) in black Archival Ink on an old book page, colored it in with Prismacolor Artist pencils - I didn't try to do a perfect job, just a basic coloring, the quality of the paper was not well suited for much else. I also used pages for my handmade flowers:

To create my flowers, I started by roughly inking old book paper sheets with Distress Inks in colors matching my image, using the foam applicator. I then punched flower shapes. One at a time, I crumpled and «uncrumpled» the shapes, which I then assembled (about 8 punchies for each flower) using a tiny brad to hold them together. The leaves are made of daisy shapes punched and cut in three, to make two leaves per flower.